Unit Will Be Spun Off Into Hedge Fund in Win for U.S. Regulators

The Royal Bank of Canada is planning to close one of the last proprietary-trading desks on Wall Street, another win for regulators that have pushed banks to cut back on making big bets with their own money.

RBC, Canada's second-largest bank by assets, plans to spin off its New York-based Global Arbitrage and Trading arm into a stand-alone hedge fund as soon as the end of this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank will likely be an investor in the fund but not an owner so it complies with the...